I have read a few posts about how Kata is not teaching you self defense, but is just teaching principles. I have even read that some find Kata not a good practice, and others think it is worthless. So I figured to get a thread going about Kata, from my point of view. I know, don't tell me, there are plenty of threads about the worthlessness of Kata out there already. Oh well, this will not be the same.

First, Kata is not worthless. If you were taught that, or not taught enough to understand what you are doing, I am truly sorry. I can tell you that every single move that I do in Kata works every time. No modification of technique, just do the move. Sometimes if you go to do a move that sets the oppenet up from a punch, and the opponent is kicking, it may not work. But isn't this why we train? I admit that I have seen some Kata that is very questionable. I will also admit that I believe that Itosu, and a few others changed a lot of the Kata to make it less dangerous and more fitting for a School program. If you practice these perhaps a little bit of knowledge would help you to extract the worthless from the worth while. I only speak of Okinawan Karate Kata now, as I have little experience in Chinese or Kenpo forms. I can promise you that I have been in enough situations through work and life that I have used just about every move taught to me at one point in time or another. They have all worked. So once again, why is Kata a bad thing to learn?